Eunmi was on the age where every little thing makes a girl like her insecure. Things such as skin problems namely acne and fairness and body weight are seriously making her confidence flailing at times – well, mostly every time. These days she had been spent a lot on beauty products and skincare products. She also had been trying to go on diet. All these actions make a person worried about her health.

“What’s that?” Yoongi, Eunmi’s closest best boy-friend that eventually turned into her one and only loving boyfriend, asked her as she was trying to open a package. She was back from the post office and went to the cafeteria as Yoongi called her to meet him there.

“You’re buying online again, aren’t you?”

“Yup!” Eunmi replied shortly.

“What is it this time?”

After a few times of ripping the plastics and paper wrappers, the item emerged out of it.

“Tada! XXX Fat Burner! They said it is really effective and many people has lose their weight consuming to this,” she explained excitedly while showing a white bottle of a slimming product.

“Who are “they” that you’re referring to?” he asked again with judging face.

“They are the testimonies. They were thousands of them on their site,” she quickly put out her phone from her pants pocket and scrolled down to the website of the said product. On the other hand, Yoongi was still munching on his food while scanning on the product description on the bottle.

“Here, look at these!” he shifted from scanning the description on the product to the website, reading the testimonies that were posted.

“And, you’re actually believe in these things?” he asked again while scrolling down the testimonies on the site.

“Of course! They are all trustable and a couple of them are my friends!”

Yoongi sighed. “Still, you can’t just trust on these things,”

Eunmi pouted her lips hearing those. “But, why~~?” she whined.

“By the way, I don’t think you really can go through this diet thing,”

“What makes you think that so?” she asked back on him, feeling taken aback.

“Well, I’m just saying,” he added and shrugging his shoulders.

Feeling herself being challenged, Eunmi stood up from the bench and look straight to him.

“Well, you better hear this out, Min Yoongi. Me, Kim Eunmi, will show you that I’m going to lose my weight to 57kg by the end of this month!” she said that out loud.

“Oh-ho…is that so?” Yoongi cooed, teasing her oath while smirking.

“You just wait! I’m really going to do it!” she grabbed the bottle and the ripped wrappers and shoved into her bag pack then left the unfazed Yoongi there.

“Good luck, then!” he shouted from behind. Who knows if he really meant that wish or was it merely a tease to her ambitious weight lose plan.

Damn, what on earth was I’m saying just now?

 

The next day and few weeks onwards,

Eunmi had really made up her mind to diet. She didn’t take her lunch as usual with Yoongi and he stopped taking junk foods and also dinners. There were times – nah, many times already – that Yoongi would personally ask her to have dinner with him but she sternly rejected the offers though he said it was his treat and it was her favourite food – cheese-filled crust with triple-threat cheese topping pizza!

“Seriously? You’re actually rejecting this holy parmesan-cheddar-mozzarella pizza treat from no other than your sugary boyfriend, for the nth time?” he said over the phone, a bit cheesy statement he made there.

“No! That is the final decision. Period,” she was strict as usual when it came to her diet plan.

“Well, it’s such a shame then,” he added mischievously. “I’m going to have it ALL by my OWN. Bye-yeom~!”

Aish! This pain in guy! Can’t he just shut up and eat by his own already!

About 20 minutes later, a Snapchat notification came in.

[minyoongicheonjaenamchin sent a photo]

She opened the app and her hands trembled a bit. Not in fear but in anger.

It was a selca of him having a mouthful bite of her favourite food with caption, ‘Yummmmmmmehhhh~~~~’

Then, another photo came in just after that.

This time a photo of 2/3 of the pizza, untouched with caption, ‘What am I going to do with these? I already full’

She replied to him with an annoyed face selca captioned, ‘Who told u to order the xtra large pizza when u know u can’t manage to finish them all. Fool!’

Yoongi then wittingly replied, ‘I have a gut feeling that someone will came in and finish all these in matter of second!*smirk emoticon*’

‘Don’t put your hopes high. I’m bz’

‘Just call your buddies. They would finish them in no time’

Sent. Delivered.

‘I’m not their father to feed them.*annoyed emoticon*’

‘btw, I rarely treat my buddies, you know’

Eunmi was a bit shocked when she received a candid shot of her eating the pizza; probably it was on their last dinner with caption ‘I only treat this girl only’

She didn’t know how to react to this message. She was fluttered and shy seeing that photo and the caption but sometimes she also felt like on the verge of puking reading his boyfriend rare cheesy texts.

After a few good minutes of contemplating, she replied back.

‘I’m sorry but that girl is currently on diet and she won’t be able to eat the pizza for a while’

‘and you as her bf should stop baiting her with foods instead support her with the diet. *angry emoticon*’

A moment later, he received a text.

‘Suit yourself. *annoyed emoticon*’

‘I was just,’

‘whatever’

‘bye’

At last, the peace of mind from this crazy boyfriend.

 

Three weeks had already passed,

Eunmi when to the nurse room to weigh her. She expected her weight to be decreased a bit, unfortunately, it didn’t change a bit. It was almost a month already and her weight is still 67kg – so far from achieving her target weight, 57kg which she promised out loud in front of Yoongi.

Where did it go wrong? I’m already cut meals so much! She was frustrated with herself.

After that, she saw a detox drink sold at the pharmacy recently.

Maybe if I drink those and take the tablets at the same time, the effect will speed up a bit!

She reasoned in her mind. In a second split, she bought the drinks without consulting to the health specialist beforehand.

 

Because of Eunmi’s stricter diet, the time spent between her and Yoongi had decrease significantly. Every time Yoongi tried to find her, she would probably stay in library or in class when the others would run to cafeteria to fill up their hungry stomach. Occasionally, she would be caught red handed taking the tablet and drinking this some kind of detox juice without taking any meal by him.

“Do you have taken any food before eating and drinking those things?” Yoongi asked her. Though Eunmi was quite shocked with the sudden question, she tried to cover it up.

“What do you mean?” acted like she didn’t know anything.

“You’ve been eating the tablets and drinking the juice without taking proper meals, have you?”

“N-no! Of course I’ve eat something first before taking those!” she answered back.

“What did you eat then? I never saw you at cafeteria ‘eating’ real foods,”

“I’ve eaten already!”

“It was, a few pieces of biscuits and an energy bar,” her voice became slower and slower at the end, almost inaudible.

“Are you serious? You just ate biscuits and a bar – FOR A DAY?” he exclaimed.

“Yes, and Why?” her voice suddenly getting louder.

They were staring at each other eyes. The atmosphere was tense and quiet.

“Just give up already,” Yoongi was the first to end the silence.

“Why? Why…why you always never back me up?”

“What do you mean I never back you up? I’m doing this –“

“NO! It was exactly the opposite! Last time I tried to look fairer and avoiding and cutting all outdoor activities but all you do was exactly the opposite! Dragging me out into the sun, going to beach, watching summer football matches, cheering you at the street basket match,” she spitted out one by one.

He hissed. “So, you’re basically saying that everything that we do last summer was my fault? All those time we spend together, you don’t like it a bit, are trying to say that, Eunmi?”

“Yes! It was torturing and all the skin products that I bought and tried has never been effective because of that! You should have known that I was trying really hard to take care of my skin“

“So, your skin and now your weight are more important than us? Is that so?”

Eunmi shut . She can’t give the exact correct answer to that question.

It’s true that her skin and diet has become her first priorities and a goal to be achieved. But, at the same time she didn’t want to sacrifice their relationship for that.

“Yoongi, you need to understand me,”

“I’m trying to,”

“No, you never try and you don’t understand me or my feelings!”

“So, it was a lie,”

“What was a lie?”

“I was the only one who understand you – you said these before – when you were once the fearless and never care of anyone opinions about your looks or how you look like, when we were once a happy pair, nothing was more important than the time we spent together and that kind of you that make me fall in love for,”

Eunmi was speechless after listening to that long confession. She saw the glistening of longing in Yoongi’s eyes.

She knew how many times already she rejected those sincere dinner treats, the missed lunch time together, the casual betting that both of them would make and the loser will buy any junk foods that winner wants, all those goofing and playing around – she literally cut those too along with this stupid diet plan.

Feeling guilty, Eunmi retreated from the staring fight and looked away defeated.

“So…?”

“No. I won’t give up, either on us or my diet,”

“By the way, I still have to fulfill my promise to you that I made three weeks ago,”

“But, Eunmi-yah…”

“No, Yoongi. Seriously, after I’ve prove this to you, I promise I’ll be the same me, the old me back. Just, please…give me another three weeks to show you the new appearance of me but still the same person that you love,”

After saying those statements, she stood up and left the classroom.

 

2 weeks after the incident,

Eunmi went to weigh herself and successfully lose a kg off her original weight. Even though she lost a kg, she still unsatisfied with the result.

It’s taking more time than I thought! It’s only a week left. I can’t make him wait anymore.

Drastic result requires drastic measure.

This time, she challenged herself to not taking ANY food for the final and crucial one-week. She literally consumed the tablets and drinks and also tonnes of plain water but no food at all.

 

It had been two days already she was on this drastic diet plan. But the side effect had gotten her already. She would have this spinning feeling in her head and sometimes she could feel herself falling from walking even for a short distance. Her friends noticed that too and offered buns or bread to her but as stubborn as she was, she refused to take it so.

“Don’t worry, I’ve already eat some,”

“My body is adjusting itself to the diet I had right now. I’ll be fine in no time,”

Those were the lies she casually told to her friends.

 

On that night, her body was shaking and trembling really hard and there was a pain in her stomach.

No, I just barely pass the second day. I can’t give it up now. There’s still 5 days left.

Come on, Eunmi! You can do this!

5 days left, Eunmi. 5 days left.

As she chanted to this mantra over and over again to make her not to think to the pain in her body as well as to get herself sleep, a text came in.

‘I’ll bring in pizza to your place’

She replied with trembling fingers.

‘I’ve already in my bed. I’m going to sleep. Bye.’

She put her phone on the side bed and tried to shut her eyes. However, a text came in again.

‘YOU’RE NOT GOING TO SLEEP WITHOUT EATING ANYTHING’

‘I DON’T CARE. IM ALREADY OTW TO YOUR PLACE’

Argh! Can’t he just stop it?

 

Then she winced as the pain in her stomach came. It felt like thousand hands was punching her stomach. The pain made Eunmi squirming like a worm on her bed.

Not long after that, her front door was knocked.

He’s here already?

“Eunmi-yah! I know you’re still not sleeping. Open the door please,” Yoongi calling her from the outside of her rent house.

She was contemplating on getting up and opened the door or staying still in the bed. No matter which option she chose, she had to bear the enormous pain in her stomach. In the end, she really didn’t have the strength to sit up or even stand up straight so she just squirming in her bed painfully.

 

On the outside of the house, Yoongi was still knocking the door and calling out Eunmi. When he felt his hands were getting almost bruised up knocking the door, he tried to searched for any spare keys that she would hide out in case she forgot to bring her keys with her but fail to find it. He went on knocking on and on. After almost a half an hour, he gave up. She’s really gone to sleep, isn’t she? He left the pizza box in front of her door, leaving her a text before he went home.

In the bed, Eunmi was still fighting with the ridiculous pain in her abdomen, trying different positions to ease the pain but only to her fail. Then, a text came in. She tried to reach out for her phone and opened text rather with difficulty due to the pain.

‘I left the pizza in front of yr door. Make sure u eat it tmrrw.’

‘Sorry for disturbing u sleeping. C u tmrrw. Goodnite.’

Eunmi tried to type something then erased them back. She was trying to get help from him but, her stubborn mind didn’t let her do it. And so, she was left alone fighting with the unknown pain in her abdomen until she fell asleep eventually.

 

The very next morning,

She went to the class as usual. She didn’t remember at what time she fell asleep. Nevertheless, she managed to wake up and make her presentable to class. However, she noticed herself getting weaker and weaker by every minute passed. Her body was on its toll. The pain in her abdomen got worse in every step she took. She literally dying inside but she never show it – neither to her friends nor to Yoongi.

On recess, as usual she didn’t left the class. She searched for the bottle inside her bag pack before took a tablet out of it. Before she managed to put the tablet into , a hand stopped her. She looked up and met to a pair of intense sharp gaze.

“You didn’t eat them, did you?” Yoongi asked in half growling voice.

“E-eat what? Oh, the pizza! Yea, it was so delicious after I haven’t eaten them for a long –“

A box was thrown on top of her desk. It was the very same pizza box that Yoongi brought that night with untouched contents within it.

She couldn’t hide it anymore. She was indeed lying to him. She looked down guilty.

 

Truthfully, Eunmi woke up rather late this morning and she just went out without breakfast plus she didn’t even notice the pizza box was lying just beside her post-box. She was indeed in hurry.

 

Yoongi took the tablet with its bottle in Eunmi’s bag pack and threw it out of window.

“Come, we’re going to hospital,” he stated in serious tone. His right hand was still holding to Eunmi’d wrist, trying to get her up from her seat.

“I’m PERFECTLY fine, Yoongi!” she retaliated, tried to release her wrist from his hand and still not moving from her seat.

“STOP LYING TO ME KIM EUNMI!” he exploded for the very first time to her. Eunmi was stunned completely and stop struggling.

“I saw how you barely managed to reach class today. You were holding to your stomach and staggering/faltering while you were walking. Sometimes, you would stop in between your steps and wince in pain. Do you think I don’t know that? Is that what you called PERFECTLY FINE?!!”

Her pupils enlarged as she was shocked. “H-how…did you know?”

 

Without her acknowledgement, Yoongi was already there at the first place. He was staying for the night at one of his friend’s house around the neighbourhood. He came really early to Eunmi’s house and was hiding around her house just to check if she really taking her breakfast today. After that, he followed her to class from behind without her notice. That’s why he knew that she was lying from the very start of that day.

“I wasn’t trying to stalk you but, you just make me worry,” he explained himself.

“Don’t you know how I really want to run to you each time you stop in your step while grieving in pain?”

“I tried to hold myself back and wait until you reach class and admit it by yourself to me but, you didn’t. You even lied to your friends; giving excuses and lies when in reality you’re really dead sick inside. Are you mad or something?” he giving her an earful scolding while she was sitting still with her face down.

“…I’m ss-s-sorry…” said Eunmi inaudibly, with a bit shaking in her voice. Her body trembled again out of her control; cold sweats trickled down her forehead. As Yoongi still held firmly into her wrist, he could feel the trembling through it.

“Eunmi? Hey, are you cold? You’re trembling like crazy!” he tried to warm her hand by rubbing both his and her hands together.

Eunmi groaned and curled herself.

“Eunmi-yah! Yah, are you in pain?” he tried to look to her face. All the colour on her face had been flushed out. She was as pale as blank paper.

“Eunmi, tell me where did it painful?” he tried to communicate with her slowly.

Eunmi mouthed ‘stomach’ and all that came out from her was groaning and .

“Can you walk?”

Eunmi shook her head vigorously.

“If I carry you, is it okay?” he asked again.

Eunmi opened her eyes and look to him.

“I’ll try…” she said inaudibly.

Yoongi tried to hold her as gentle as he could then as soon as she comfortable with the position she was carried, he lifted him up and quickly dash to the nurse room and eventually to hospital.

 

She got herself warded for half of the day. Doctor diagnosed her as symptoms of ketosis which was related to starvation. She was given a shot and some medicine before she was able to check out. Other than that, the doctor warned her to stop doing such extreme and drastic diet like that anymore and also advised her that she should take balanced and proper meals and having a fit lifestyle (like any doctor will advise their patients ^^) to get her body functioning like it has always been.

 

“I told you so!” Yoongi said out loud.

He and Eunmi were walking back from hospital. He was slightly in front of her, making this i-told-you-so face expression.

“Yeah, I know, it’s my fault. I’m so sorry,” she apologized.

He didn’t respond to her apology.

“I promise I won’t do that anymore. Seriously,”

Still the same, he remained mute.

“Hey, since the doctor said I need to eat to keep my body functioning like it used to be,” she went closer to him. “How about an extra-large you-name-it-all cheese pizza, as a start?” she nudged her elbow to him while squealed a pitch higher at the end of the sentence. That was her ‘aegyo’ way for him.

Without her knowing, Yoongi smiled a bit haven’t heard that kind of request for a long time.

Although he thought she didn’t saw him smiling physically underneath those grey knitted scarf, she somehow could sense him doing it so.

“So, it is yes, or no?” she asked again, these time she throwing one more ‘aegyo’ to him and it is considered as deadly and fatal to him – the pleading eyes (the one that Puss in the boots always do ^^).

“Yes, but you paid by yourself. I’ll just eat,” he replied coldly as to cover his poker face.

Suddenly, Eunmi groaned in pain. He looked back and noticed she was already curled to her knees.

“Eunmi! Hey, is the pain in your stomach come again? Eunmi, say something!” he shook he body again and again.

A growling sound was heard. This time, it came from her upset stomach.

“I’m…really…hungry…” she confessed a bit ashamed.

 

What she heard from him in return was a light chuckle. She looked up from her knees to meet a gummy smile that she hadn’t seen so long time. Eventually, she ended up curving a smile though she was shy for her upset stomach making such sound.

“What are we waiting for?” she asked rhetoric question as soon as he managed to make her stand up.

"You've got a hungry girlfriend to be treated,"

Yoongi held Eunmi’s hand firmly.

"Then, you better make sure your stomach can handle the all-night-long buffet coming up!" with hand in hand, they headed to the nearest eateries to fill up his girlfriend’s empty stomach.